Car Resale Value
Estimate what a car is worth today from age and yearly depreciation.
About Car Resale Value
Compound depreciation is applied each year, so the value declines fastest early in the car's life. Knowing realistic resale value helps decide when to sell before a car's repair bills pass its remaining worth.
Formula
Car Resale Value
Value = price x (1 - yearly depreciation)^years
- yearly depreciation
- Typical value lost per year, often 10-20%
Worked example
With the default values below, Car Resale Value returns Current Value of $18,424. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Purchase priceminimum 0
- 30,000
- Years ownedaccepts 0–30
- 3
- Yearly depreciationaccepts 0–50 %
- 15 %
Results
- Current Value
- $18,424
- Total Depreciation
- $11,576
- Depreciation
- 38.6%
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Car Resale Value
- 3Current Value= 18,424
- 4Total Depreciation= 11,576
- 5Depreciation= 38.6
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 3 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or fees or charges into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 1 decimal place, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Car Resale Value calculated?
Value = price x (1 - yearly depreciation)^years Compound depreciation is applied each year, so the value declines fastest early in the car's life.
Why does Car Resale Value matter?
Knowing realistic resale value helps decide when to sell before a car's repair bills pass its remaining worth.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 3 inputs: Purchase price, Years owned, Yearly depreciation. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.